25 MARCH 1865, Page 22

French Authors at Home. Two vols. (L. Booth.)—A pleasant book

of gossip about great writers is sure to be agreeable, and this has the great merit of being quite without effort or at least visible effort. 3ladamo de Girardin, George Sand, Limartine, Lamennais, Victor Hugo are all here, but Balzac is the hero. His dress, his country-house, his walnut-tree, his debts, the mystery in which he shrouded his affection for the lady who at last became his wife, are the subject of innumerable stories, which have that highest kind of humour which is as it were perfumed with pathos. Tho author should give us a biography of Balzac.